Urban developments including districts for living units, travel accommodations and business establishments have existed for centuries, and they are still being developed today. Examples of such urban developments include the historic city of Williamsburg, Va., and the modern development of Celebration, Fla. Such urban developments are driven by the everyday needs of the residents and visitors for housing and commerce. Further examples of the urban concept are found in Clarence Perry's monograph on the neighborhood unit from Volume VII of “The Regional Survey of New York and its Environs” published in 1929.
The district is an urbanized area that is functionally specialized. Although districts preclude the full range of activities of urbanism, they are not the single-activity zones of suburbia. Rather, multiple activities support its primary identity. Typically, complex examples are theater districts, capital areas, shopping district and college campuses but not so far as to extend to theme parks or amusement parks that are considered as single-activity zones. Some further examples are Church Street Station in Orlando, Fla., and Riverwalk in San Antonio, Tex.
Large entertainment and resort complexes have been developed within the last several decades. These developments include accommodations, entertainment and shopping facilities for a transient visitor. The Walt Disney World resort complex in central Florida is typical of such complexes. Within these parks are some rides and attractions based upon motion pictures and television shows, or more generally on “Hollywood” themes. A community may develop around a tourist trade to include both entertainment and urban development facilities. Las Vegas, Nev., includes its “Strip” as an integral part of a modern city. The Hilton Hotel in Las Vegas has an attached “Star Trek Experience” attraction that is based generally upon the television show of the same name.
Lodgings are establishments with the capacity to receive people that occupy another's house, apartment, studio, suite, villa, hotel, motel, bed and breakfast establishment, or related business while paying for the accommodations. Within the past several decades, some lodging establishments have incorporated a generic theme common throughout the hotel or resort. Examples include Luxor Hotel and Resort Casino in Las Vegas, Nev., incorporating an Egyptian theme; Polynesian Resort Hotel at the Walt Disney World resort in Orlando, Fla., incorporating a Pacific Island theme; and the Portofino Hotel at Universal Studios in Orlando, Fla., incorporating an Italian Riviera theme. The MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nev. incorporates a Hollywood theme. The casino and guestrooms are inspired by elements from the motion picture “The Wizard of Oz” and other Hollywood-type themes are incorporated throughout various areas of the hotel and resort.
The motion picture and television markets have created a need for studio filming locations that represent real-world locations. Film production companies create environments within which actors may portray characters, and they capture such images on film. Only the areas necessary to simulate a real environment are constructed; therefore, exterior facades seldom include more than three finished walls. Studio backlots include facade structures intended to represent cities, towns, and neighborhoods in a theatrical style. Studio backlot exterior facades are generally separate from interior set designs. Interior sets are often constructed within sound stages located at the studios. Due to filming constraints, interior sets are frequently built in a form that is incompatible with what an exterior facade can accommodate. As a result, there are often inconsistencies between an exterior facade and the related interior set design, although such inconsistencies may go unnoticed by the viewing audience. By example are Universal Studios, Hollywood, Calif.; Disney/MGM Studios, Orlando, Fla.; and Warner Bros. Studios, Burbank, Calif. The homes, apartments, stores, restaurants, places of business, etc. portrayed by these studios in motion pictures and television shows are fanciful structures that appear real when viewed through the lens of a camera. Many have become familiar and memorable to the audiences of the films and television shows. However, the camera creates such fanciful structures and they exist as a functional whole only in the minds of the viewers of the film or television show.
A book titled “TV Sets: Fantasy Blueprints of Classic TV Homes” by Mark Bennett presents idealized drawings of homes that have been depicted in famous television shows. Mr. Bennett describes these drawings as “imaginary blueprints” because they were developed from sketches drawn by the author from memory after viewing the subject television shows. This book does not provide an accurate rendition of the homes due to the limitations of the process used by the author to acquire his information. For example, none of the drawings in this book contain dimensions, nor do they appear to have a consistent scale, as evidenced by the garage in the “Darrin & Samantha Stevens House” from “Bewitched” which has a depth sufficient to accommodate automobiles only slightly longer than the couch in the living room.
The cost to produce a motion picture or television show is great. The commercial exploitation of this investment goes far beyond merely selling tickets at a movie theater or advertising time during a television broadcast. The entertainment industry is known to expand a movie or television brand into a variety of products and services; including, for example, collectibles, clothing, toys, and food. Universal City Studios, Inc. owns United States service mark registration number 1643171 for the mark “RIDE THE MOVIES” for the exploitation of their movie products in the field of amusement park services. Further ways to commercially exploit the investment in a motion picture or television show are needed.